1950 Fantastic Omnium of the World Champions – The Cycling Gala of the Year

Fantastisch Omnium der Wereldkampioenen – Wielergala van het Jaar 1950

Reg Harris & Rik Van Steenbergen vs. Gerrit Schulte & Arie van Vliet

Created for an extraordinary evening of track racing at the Antwerp Sportpaleis on March 25, 1950, this bold poster announces what promoters called the “Wielergala van het Jaar”—the Cycling Gala of the Year. Its dramatic red, mint green and black design combines fantastic lettering with four photographic portraits of the evening’s featured champions. The main attraction was billed as a “Fantastisch Omnium der Wereldkampioenen,” or Fantastic Omnium of the World Champions, matching Britain’s Reg Harris and Belgium’s Rik Van Steenbergen against the formidable Dutch combination of Gerrit Schulte and Arie van Vliet. Unlike today’s standardized omnium, an omnium of this period was a multi-event track competition intended to test riders across several different disciplines.

Few track meetings could have assembled a more accomplished group. Reg Harris was the reigning professional sprint world champion, having won the title in 1949; he retained it in 1950 and 1951 before winning it a fourth time in 1954. He had also earned two silver medals at the 1948 London Olympics. Rik Van Steenbergen entered the evening as the reigning 1949 professional road world champion and was already a star on both road and track. He would eventually win three world road titles, numerous major classics and forty Six-Day races. Gerrit Schulte was the 1948 professional individual-pursuit world champion, having defeated Fausto Coppi in the final, while Arie van Vliet was the 1948 professional sprint world champion and the 1936 Olympic kilometer champion.

The program extended well beyond the featured omnium. Harris was scheduled to attack the flying-start kilometer record held by former road world champion Karel Kaers, whose time was advertised as 1 minute 4.4 seconds. The evening also included a 50-kilometer Ploegkoers or Madison race presented as a rematch of the Antwerp Six-Day, with sixteen teams advertised. Among the listed combinations were Van Steenbergen–Achiel Bruneel, Van Vliet–Schulte, Stan Ockers–Lucien Gillen and Marcel Kint–Maurice Depredomme. The connection to the Six-Day was especially timely: Bruneel and Van Steenbergen had won the 1950 Antwerp Six-Day, with Gerrit Peters and Schulte second and Edward Thyssen and Van Vliet third.

Opened in 1933, the Antwerp Sportpaleis was built primarily for track cycling and became one of Europe’s great indoor racing venues. Its steep, compact wooden track hosted the Antwerp Six-Day and countless winter meetings featuring the finest road and track riders of the period. This event began at 7:30 p.m. and was conducted under the regulations of the K.B.W.B., Belgium’s national cycling federation.

Bringing together four reigning or former world champions, a world-record attempt and a Six-Day rematch, this wonderful poster documents an exceptional night of European track racing.

This poster has been archivally and professionally linen-backed.

Virtually all original vintage posters of this era were viewed as temporary advertising and were printed on fragile, thin paper. While expensive, linen backing is a conservation method used to mount, stabilize, preserve, and protect vintage posters so they can be displayed or framed without compromising value.

This poster is an original first printing, not a reproduction.